I know this was mentioned before somewhere about tail rattling: but I've recently found out that both my BP and Brazilian Rainbow Boa can (and do) vibrate their whole bodies when excited! It's really a weird sensation .... hmm like a vibrator!

Since I've had the two in quarantine boxes which are changed every day to deal with the mites, I've noticed things like this a lot more. They don't seem shy or nervous or irritated but they just vibrate sometimes when I reach in to pet them.

Talyn is going into shed again... I've also noticed that she smells extremely "musky" lately... is this a hormonal thing, a shed thing, a boa thing or does she just have gas?
I never noticed it before, maybe because of the smell of the terrarium soil and reptibark in her usual terrarium.

PS -- the Reptile Relief seems to be working... I haven't seen any mites on either snake for at least a week now!

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Andrea

When you say "musky" do you mean an ammonia-like smell? On occaison my pythons will smell a bit "snakey" when in shed. The vibrating bodes comment makes me a bit nervous however because I've never heard of a boid tail rattling. Tail rattling is usually a defensive thing in colubrids like my bullsnake but I've heard of corns doing it sometimes. Any full body rattling by a boid would cause me to call the vet, just for a consultation at least, but then again I tend to be paranoid. I really don't mean to be an alarmist but read this article and make sure neither of them is exhibiting any of these symptoms: http://www.anapsid.org/ibd.html

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Official hostage of the GFWD
"The truely dangerous people are the ignorant ones."
Founding Member of Logical People Against Arcane Boa Subspecies Classification (LPAABSC):
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"A BOA CONSTRICTOR IS A Boa constrictor!"

Thanks for the reply Microscope Jockey. Yes, I guess it is sort of an ammonia-like smell -- yeah, "snakey". I had a garter snake that could produce an extreme version of this smell when threatened... kind of like a skunk. On Talyn, I wasn't sure if it was related to using the reptile relief on her or just the shedding.
As far as the rattling... she has no symptoms of inclusion body disease. The tip of her tail often rattles when I put her back into her terrarium after handling. I took it to mean she was excited. She usually doesn't rattle otherwise. I think she just isn't too happy about living in the plastic box for the mite quarantine. If I open the box and start to pet her, her whole body vibrates. If I just keep my hand still on her, it stops. It could also be that she is just extra sensitive because she's going into shed.

I noticed that our little BP, Monty, could vibrate his whole body too. But that only happened a few times after we first got him... I think he was nervous.

I just thought it was interesting, since you really don't hear much about boids rattling!

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Andrea

That is pretty interesting. The only quivering I've seen in my boids is when the pythons are about to strike a prey item and it's only in the upper half of the body that is "S"ed. I figured the "extra snakiness" I've smelled on mine during shed was because the old skin would be kinda porous so I figured some of the fecal material or urates got absorbed into the old skin. You could be right though, your smell could be because of mite spray. Do you happen to know what's in it?

__________________
Official hostage of the GFWD
"The truely dangerous people are the ignorant ones."
Founding Member of Logical People Against Arcane Boa Subspecies Classification (LPAABSC):
B c.c 1758, B. c. i. 1803 B. c. o. 1873!
"A BOA CONSTRICTOR IS A Boa constrictor!"

The active ingredients in Reptile Relief are: Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate 2.1% and Undecylenic Acid 0.5% and other ingredients (???) 97.4%

The rattling is pretty interesting. Bitis said that all snakes rattle. Since she has over 20 -something I think she would probably know. I just didn't know they could rattle their whole bodies!

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Andrea

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Zane Neher.

The great and strong man is one who bears within his character many contradictions.
Crocodilian care.

I have never felt either of my ballpythons vibrate!
The small may be due to the shedding since they secrete a liquid under the old skin to cause it to release prior to the shed.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!